I found a recipe for avocado toast in a Bon Appetit cleanse a while ago, and it quickly became my favorite snack, breakfast, or lunch. I adjusted the recipe a little to balance the tartness of the lemon with some honey. Make sure to allow your avocados to ripen, they should be just a little pliable when you give them a squeeze.

Avocado Toast

1/2 avocado, mashed

1/2 lemon juiced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tasblespoon honey

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1 slice of bread, toasted

Combine the avocado, lemon, olive oil, honey and red pepper flakes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon on the toast and enjoy!

I am always a fan of pasta for a quick weeknight dinner, and so it’s not surprising that I already have several blog posts to choose from. I always love pesto and I have a recipe here, but I also loved this avocado pesto because it was a rich, creamy, and different version of the usual pesto genovese.

As you may have guessed, I LOVE meatballs. I’m pretty sure spaghetti and meatballs is one of my top 5 all-time favorite meals. In fact, just talking about it now makes me want it this weekend. These meatballs are light and flavorful, and the sauce gets extra depth from braising the meatballs in it. I think you’ll love it as much as I do.

This Spicy Pasta with Crab is a new favorite, and of course it’s a Mario Batali recipe. It’s so quick and easy and I just love crab in any form. Use good egg noodles like a tajarin or tagliatelle and it’s even better. You could even use fresh pasta for this one, it would be a great complement to the crab.

This one definitely makes my top 5 meals as well. I love a delicious bolognese, and these fresh spinach linguine were so wonderful with the meaty sauce. The slow cooked meat is so flavorful and it absorbs into the pasta, creating a heavenly dish that transports me to Italy. It’s a lot harder to get me to eat veggies when I could just have seconds of this…

And then there are gnocchi. I love these little pillows of pasta, especially when they are in pesto. They’re also great in other sauces, but they have a way of soaking up pesto that no other pasta does. I keep some in the freezer for a quick meal on a night when I don’t want to cook, and they work beautifully from the freezer directly to boiling water.

I’ve been thinking about slow roasting a pork shoulder for a while now. I’ve always thought it was some big endeavor with an expensive piece of meat, but it turns out I was totally wrong. The meat was very inexpensive and it couldn’t have been easier. A dry rub on the outside, and you put it in the oven for a good long time. It comes out glistening and golden with a meaty, heavenly aroma that perfumes the whole apartment. No one can resist picking at it before it cools, either. And pork shoulder is so versatile, you could make it into tacos or any other Mexican food, or you could make a ragu, bbq pulled pork, or anything else porky you can think of.

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

1 pork shoulder

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon ground pepper

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon coriander

1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper

1 tablespoon cayenne

1/4 cup brown sugar

4 sprigs of rosemary

6 garlic cloves, chopped

Combine the spices, brown sugar, and garlic together. Score the skin through the fat layer but not into the meat in about a 1 inch cross-hatch. Rub the spice rub all over the pork shoulder, making sure to get inside the cuts. Place the shoulder into a baking dish with some of the rosemary sprigs below. Add a couple on top and a couple extra whole garlic cloves if you want.

Put in a 350 degree oven for 4-5 hours, until the meat is tender and you can pull it apart with a fork. The skin should be crispy and the meat moist.

Pork Tacos

2-3 ounces shredded roasted pork shoulder

2 tablespoons grated cheddar

1 corn tortilla

2 tablespoons guacamole

hot sauce

Put the tortilla in a frying pan with a sprinkle of olive oil and spread the grated cheddar on top. The tortilla will brown a little and the cheese will melt. Remove from the pan and add the warm pork along with the guacamole and a sprinkle of hot sauce. Or add any other toppings you like for tacos!

Guacamole

1 avocado

Juice and zest of 2 limes

1 shallot, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1 teaspoon agave nectar or honey

1 teaspoon aleppo pepper or cayenne if you like it spicier

1 tablespoon olive oil

Combine the lime, shallot, and garlic together and let sit for 20 minutes so the shallot and garlic soften and bloom. Add the avocado, spices, agave, and olive oil and mash together with a fork. Add the tomatoes and stir through gently. Let sit for at least an hour for best flavor.

I won a box of avocados from Serious Eats a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been working on some recipes with them. This avocado pesto worked well with this whole wheat fresh pasta, and also as a topping for some deliciously sweet scallops from the farmers market. The avocado gives it a creaminess and richness that you don’t expect, and the lime juice gives it a little tart bite. I still love pesto genovese, but this was a nice change.

Avocado Pesto

1 avocado

2 limes zested and juiced

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1 cup arugula

1 cup basil

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove

Combine all the ingredients together in a blender or food processor and blend. I like to put the cheese and nuts in first to make sure they get ground up before you introduce the other ingredients, otherwise you might get pieces of cheese or nuts that stay whole in the final sauce. Spoon onto scallops, toss with pasta, or use in any way you might use regular pesto!

Like this:

A couple months ago I made a really delicious scallop crudo and I was craving something similar. But I had just had scallops the day before, so I decided to get some really beautiful salmon and use that. While the citrus juice “cooks” the fish, it doesn’t actually cook it so make sure you have really fresh fish for this. It will however change the texture which is pretty interesting. I don’t like raw onions, but you definitely could chop up some red onion and throw that in.

Salmon Ceviche

1/2 pound (very fresh) salmon, diced

juice and zest of 2 limes

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon honey or agave

1 avocado, diced

After you dice up the salmon, add it to the lime juice and zest, olive oil, and honey. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 1-3 hours and you will see the salmon slowly change texture.

Add the avocado and gently toss. It’s ready to serve, but you can add a sprinkle of parsley or cilantro on top. Serve with toasts, pita chips, corn chips, or eat it alone. You can add a sprinkle of fleur de sel over the top as well.